Ramsgate’s Port Of Shame: More Brett Law Breaking. More Council Complicity. More Risks To Health

Credit Nick Mitchell

Last week  I published two articles about Brett Aggregates’ unlawful washing, crushing and grading of aggregates at Ramsgate Port and how Thanet Council (TDC) has allowed this law breaking to continue whilst it threatens the health of  Ramsgate’s residents.  

If  this appalling scandal wasn’t bad enough I have now discovered that Brett’s law breaking is not confined to the unpermitted and  unlawful washing, crushing and grading of aggregate at  Ramsgate port but to other potentially unlawful activities, which also threaten public health. Yet again TDC does not appear to have used its legal powers to put a stop to Brett’s serial criminality. Here’s  the story.

Brett Aggregates do have an environmental permit to operate a regulated activity at Ramsgate Port. The permit was issued  in August 2010 and was last renewed in March 2019.

The permit was issued to Brett Aggregates:

solely for the manufacture of ready mixed concrete by the blending of coarse     aggregate, fine aggregate and cementitious material with water and admixtures

Ian Driver

In order to safely manufacture concrete at the port the coarse

 aggregate, fine aggregate, cementitious material,  water and admixtures mentioned in the permit must be managed and processed with great caution  so as to avoid air pollution which can seriously damage the health of Bretts workers and customers at the port, other port workers and visitors, passers-by  and Ramsgate residents.

The permit includes the following, extremely tough, legal conditions designed to ensure public health.

Aggregates delivery and storage

9. Dusty materials (including dusty wastes) shall only be stored in closed containers. Aggregates shall be delivered to and stored in three walled bays and shall be subject to suppression and management techniques to minimise dust emissions. Stockpile shall not be piled higher than external walls of the bay and shall not be forward of the bay.

Belt conveying

10. All dusty materials, including wastes, shall be conveyed using adequate protection against wind whipping. All transfer points shall be fitted with adequate dust control.

 Loading, unloading and transport

11. No potentially dusty materials (including wastes) or finished products shall arrive on or leave the site other than by use of enclosed vehicle or tanker

Credit Nick Mitchell

Whilst these conditions have nothing to with the washing crushing and grading of aggregate, they have everything to do with “aggregate delivery and storage” at the port including aggregates not destined for concrete manufacture.

But as photographic evidence shows tens,  if not hundreds, of thousands of tonnes of aggregates have, since August 2025, been and continue to be, stored in the open without the protection of the mandated three walled enclosures.

The photographs also show that  the massive non-protected piles of aggerate at the port tower above the height of the few  existing  three walled enclosures, making it extremely likely, especially this time of year, that fine aggregate will be wind whipped into the town and into the lungs of Ramsgate residents.

Its hard to tell from the photographs whether the conveyors used to transport the aggregate onto and around the port, have “adequate protection against wind whipping”. Did TDC carried out checks to establish this to be the case? I very much doubt it.

I, and probably hundreds of Ramsgate residents, have witnessed, in recent weeks, many HGVs leaving the port with large loads of aggregate. Due to closures of the  port tunnel many of these HGVs have passed through the centre of Ramsgate. Of those  I have witnessed  not one of these HGVs was an “enclosed vehicle” as required by Brett’s  permit.

As with the  unlawful washing, crushing and grading of aggregates at the port of Ramsgate, it seems to me that Brett is deliberately flouting environmental law concerning the safe storage of aggregate and instead is putting corporate greed before the health and wellbeing of Ramsgate residents.  And yet again, TDC bosses and councillors are groveling at the feet of Bill “Bully Boy” Brett by aiding and abetting his company’s serial  criminality and supporting what might become a public health disaster.

More on this unfolding story coming soon. Keep checking my blog for updates at www.iandriver.org

Any information  you have about Bretts or the council which you think might interest me please get in touch. 07866588766 ianddriver@yahoo.co.uk Strictest confidence.